The number of coronavirus cases at the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex has jumped to 345, just days after the Tennessee Department of Correction announced 162 inmates had tested positive.
The department conducted mass testing at the Pikeville prison last weekend, after multiple employees tested positive the week prior. All 2,335 inmates have now been screened, though the prison is still awaiting results from 1,020 tests.
At a press briefing Monday, TDOC Commissioner Tony Parker said the department had expanded testing at the Bledsoe County prison, along with three other prisons with confirmed cases. But he said most facilities would rely on targeted testing and “aggressive” contact tracing to track the illness, rather than assessing all state inmates for the virus.
Parker said inmates who have tested positive are in medical isolation and that the vast majority were asymptomatic.
All but two Tennessee prisons have tested at least one inmate for the coronavirus. Four have reported cases, with the largest outbreaks at Bledsoe County. Turney Center Industrial Complex has 21 confirmed cases, Northwest Correctional Complex has 16 and Trousdale Turner Correctional Center has two. Morgan County Correctional Complex and Riverbend Maximum Security Institution have not tested any inmates.
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